Manpower

May 5, 2010

A domestic population that exceeds 1 billion people has several noteworthy effects on Chinese society.

1. The Chinese are INCREDIBLY fast at getting construction done. They simply have the man power to work around the clock with an abundance of workers. Here in Shanghai, when there was only one month left until Expo and nobody thought they would get it done, the Chinese miraculously pulled it off. My roommate arrived in Shanghai 2.5 years ago. At that time there were 4 subway lines. Today there are 13. Currently, Los Angeles plans on extending one of its subway lines from Korea Town to Santa Monica. That project is estimated to be completed in 20 years. Today is the two-year anniversary of the catastrophic earthquake in Sichuan province that killed 90,000 people and left 5 million people without housing. Since that time, the Chinese have built 250,000 new residential buildings in that area. What has the U.S. done for New Orleans thus far?

2. It’s dog eat dog. It’s every man for himself here in China. The large population creates an intense competition between people. That is evident in the way people push their way onto the subway without waiting for people to get off first, young people rarely get up to give older people their seats, everyone, including little old ladies, will push and shove you on the street without saying ‘excuse me’ or ‘sorry’, and there is a serious lack of standing in lines in favor of cutting in front of folks.

The competition has some benefits for consumers. Any vacuum that is found in the business market will be filled. Basically, if you are willing to pay money for something in China, you can get it. And you can get it delivered to your door. The Chinese ebay – taobao.com, sells everything from blue cheese to condoms to real live people. Delivery usually takes 1-2 days. If you want something mailed, you can call someone and they will come pick it up from your house or wherever you are, wrap or box it, and get it to the delivery address by the next day if the address is in China. We have a contact here that will deliver hard-to-find avocados to our door for 10 kuai each ($1.50) with no delivery charge. We know a person who will deliver copious amounts of ice to our door for the same price. Almost every restaurant has free delivery. McDonald’s has 24-hour delivery with a minimal charge. I have one friend who had her double cheeseburger meal delivered to the bar we were at.

3. Education. The education system in China is set up in such a way to crank out large numbers of students. Questions, creativity, and individuality are not valued. Students spend their entire academic careers studying and memorizing material for a test that is taken at the end of high school that will determine whether they can get into college. If they do not pass the test, they cannot escape a life of blue collar work. In addition, students that do not go to school in big cities are at a serious disadvantage to passing the test. Rural places do not attract good teachers so the education is worse. On top of that, I recently found out that Chinese people need a permit to live in Shanghai, and I’m assuming other large cities, which is expensive and difficult to obtain, and also another barrier to getting a quality education that would allow a student to pass this college-entrance exam.

If we were to compare the U.S. and China economically, I would say that what the U.S. has going for it is creativity and entrepreneurship. China has sheer man power.